Friday, May 13, 2005

Melissa Hanks Tells The Truth To The University Of Oregon

Melissa Hanks is a guest commentator at the Oregon Daily Emerald. This will make more sense if you read my earlier post, Multicultural academic racism.
Melissa, you are a candle in the darkness. God bless you for speaking out. It gives me great hope to know we are still producing people like you despite the dark age of our educational system. Keep up the good work.

What is Gregory J. Vincent, the vice provost for institutional equity and diversity, doing to the University? Does diversity really mean segregating students of color into classes where they can be with other students of color and share their "student of color" experiences with minimal non-color students present ("Officials defend class enrollment restrictions," ODE, May 12)?

Where does that leave white students on your list? This is segregation; it is just labeled something different.

Vincent is acting in a racist manner. He is judging people based on their skin color, not by the content of their character. Diversity is more than skin color; diversity is of the mind. Try being white, conservative and heterosexual on this campus. I am devalued more and more every day when my feelings and experiences are ignored because of my skin color. Self-identified conservative students are still afraid to speak because of what may happen to their education, careers and physical safety.

I have a dream that one day, I can say something and not be taunted as a middle-class white girl. I have a dream that one day, I will be able to talk to people without being blamed for their problems. I have a dream that one day, my experiences will be recognized as equal to others and that classes at the University will be truly diverse in thought, not just in skin color.

I am white. I am a woman. I am conservative. There is no reason I should feel bad about that or face barriers because of my skin color. My rights to register for a class are equal. My rights to speak my mind are important. Stop segregating this campus into colored and white, Greg Vincent, and start being colorblind.

Melissa Hanks lives in Eugene

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have been going to University of Oregon for three years and I can count the number of students of color I have had in my classes on one hand. In a class of 140 there may be one student of color if even that. I am white and middleclass and to say that white middleclass students are being discriminated against at University of Oregon is the most ignorant thing I have ever heard of. I would guess that 97% of the student population at University of Oregon consists of white, middleclass students. This makes for an uncomfortable situation for the miniscule amount of students of color at University of Oregon.
In a country with a history of racism it is sad to see that when a few students of color want to be in a class with other students that they can relate to they are accused of being part of an oppressive system. Then if one privileged, white, middleclass girl speaks out about being oppressed by the 3% population of students of color who are already if a difficult situation it makes national news and people across America praise her. These types of issues make me fearful about the future of our great nation. I think Melissa Hanks needs to rethink the situation that she is in. I am white. I am a woman. I am semi conservative and there are far greater issues that we need to worry about than a few students trying to find comfort in an environment that anybody in their situation would be uncomfortable in.